a better man, and he was left in charge of the machinery when the furnace went into blast. The machinery was vertical, the steam standing above the blast cylinder, the whole extending in a line some 27 feet above the foundation. Considerable vibration at the top was found to result from the movements of the machine when put to the necessary speed. Instead of remedying this by guys from the top to the strong surrounding walls, during a fortnight's absence of the superintendent the engineer applied one timber-brace, setting the top over the whole, or little more than the whole, amount of the vibration, thus forcing it out of line, and causing such injury to the inside of the cylinders, from cutting of the metallic piston heads, that the blast cylinder (and I think the steam cylinder also) required to be taken out and sent to the manufacturer, a hundred miles distant, and the whole put in repair, at a cost of $2,000. This, with the damage arising from stoppage, was more than sufficient to have paid the wages of a first class man, instructed in the "science" of his business, for two years. That man is still employed in the same position at a blast furnace on the Ohio River, above us.

Now for another kind of a man. In a part of the country where the services of a railroad engineer were very difficult to procure as well as very expensive, it was necessary to construct two or three curves to a definite radius in a short railroad extending from the coal mine to the main line of railroad. An employé who knew nothing of engineering but had mastered the first six books of Euclid, by an evening's study and application of the geometrical principles involved, discovered the very rule and method used by the best engineers, and next day, with the aid of a transit, located the curves with correctness and dispatch. How much was such a man worth above an ordinary hand!

Mr. S. P. Cummings, of Boston, Mass., secretary of the Massachusetts Grand Lodge of the Order of St. Crispin, chairman of the executive committee of the International Labor Union and of the State labor party, said:

2. The difference is very marked, indeed. Educated labor is by far the most skilful and faithful. The value of skilled labor over unskilled, both as to productiveness and compensation, is fully 20 per cent.

3. A knowledge of the subjects would increase production and wages fully 20 per cent. over the present, inasmuch as the effect would be to stimulate laborers to produce better articles, and consequently increase their means of enjoyment.

4. It does. It is difficult to determine. I should say 20 per cent., as the result of my observations in fifty cities and towns in this State.

5. Most certainly he would by intelligent employers.

6. I have a large personal acquaintance among manufacturers, and they generally agree that their foremen's money value depends largely on the education they possess. To this rule there are some exceptions, of course.

7. Inventive culture, as a rule, increases the self-respect and improves vastly the social habits of workingmen.

8. Educated workingmen live in better houses, have better surroundings, and are in all respects superior to those whose education is limited and defective. They are less idle and dissipated than the untaught classes. As regards economy, morality, and social influence, educated laborers are preeminent among their fellows. I may add one general observation, that, while I was foreman of a shoe factory employing forty hands, I always got better work, had less trouble, and, as a general rule, paid better wages to the more intelligent workmen. The more ignorant hands were continually giving me trouble, either by slighting their work or failing to appear in a fit condition to work after pay day. They were, many of them, coarse and vulgar, drank liquor, grumbled, and were in all respects disagreeable.

I am so well satisfied of the inestimable value of education to the laborer that I would make it compulsory. No man should be allowed to go into the arena of

life until he has at least a decent English education. A class of uneducated laborers in a community or State is an ever present element of danger and injury not only to labor but to the State itself; therefore, sir, I am much pleased to see that you are collecting statistics for the information of the Government and people on the subject.

Miss Martha Walbridge, of Stoneham, Mass., head of the Daughters of St. Crispin (trades union), replied:

2. I unhesitatingly reply in the affirmative to the first question. As to how much such additional skill would increase the productiveness of their service, &c., I would state it certainly as much as 20 per cent.

3. The ratio is certainly great, and I am so sanguine on this subject that I would state the increase of ability would give the laborer double the power. As to what knowledge would be most practicable, I would offer, as a substitute for book-keeping and algebra, natural and intellectual philosophy; and my observation teaches me that these sciences are absolutely essential to the welfare and progress of the laborer.

4. Most emphatically it does; for who so stupid that will not exercise the little wit he may have to economize his physical strength? How much this inventive skill adds I feel incompetent to judge.

5. Certainly, unless the employer be a thief or a rascal.

6. Rarely have I known an illiterate person employed as foreman, and when such cases have come under my observation, the persons thus employed have never been able to retain such positions, on account of their incompetency.

7. Mental culture has a salutary effect on the habits of working people. It has a direct tendency to morality and refinement. It assuredly develops itself in a desire and healthy effort to secure for themselves and families better homes and intellectual enjoyments. A sense, once attained, of the true dignity of manhood and womanhood is seldom if ever lost sight of, but retained and fostered as the poor man's one only priceless jewel, and this sense and noble desire make him an honest and respected citizen.

ANSWERS OF WORKMEN.

The replies of the workmen to the same series of questions were of far more interest than those of the employers, because presenting the subject in a greater variety of views.

Increased skill and aptitude, according to the testimony of the workmen, almost universally results from education; one remarks that in the business of iron molding, where generally it is least supposed to be of consequence, this result is to be most observed.

As to whether ability to read and write conduces to increased fidelity and skill, and also to increase of wages, opinions varied, though most agreed that it would increase them from 10 to 20 per cent. One great value of so much knowledge is, that those able to read the facts for themselves are not apt to be so unreasonable in their demands or to engage in strikes; but, knowing the markets, know that increase of wages at a given time is impossible. One wrote that "How cheap will you work?" not "How much do you know?" was the question asked by certain employers, and his opinion was that knowledge has little to do with wages. Yet the same authority, in replying to the next question, "As to how much more knowledge will increase wages," bore full testimony to the value of an acquaintance with arithmetic to miners, the class of whom he spoke. So it seems that in this labor to simply read

and write is not enough; and his answer, seemingly undervaluing this knowledge, is but a strong plea for more education. Most treat fidelity, faithfulness, and honesty as matter independent of mere knowledge of the rudiments of education; as moral qualities which are possessed in as high a degree by some who know nothing of the rudiments of educa tion as by those who do. One argued that education does not increase the fidelity of the laborer, because education enables him to appreciate the wrongs inflicted by capital upon labor, and therefore will not be likely to increase his "fidelity" to those whom he considers his oppressors.

To the query as to the effect and value of still higher education, a knowledge of the sciences that underlie his occupation, the answers were varied, and treated upon nearly all the related questions in the contest between capital and labor. One replied that it would enable a mechanic to take his own contract and receive all the profit coming from his labor; in other words, though the writer does not say it, it would transfer him from the rank of those who labor for wages to that of the employer. Another thought it would increase the wealth of the employer but not of the laborer.

Another found a drawback in that a youth with this education, fitted to make him a superior workman, thinks it menial to learn a trade; this idea is expressed in different forms by several.

Another stated that a thorough knowledge of the material in which an iron molder works, for instance, would enable him to produce the same results with one-third less labor; but would not necessarily increase his wages. A distinction was drawn by several between the additional wealth producing power and the increased wages of the laborer.

In answer as to whether the increase of inventive skill keeps pace with increase of general education, one stated that between the years 1866 and 1870 the production of a given number of mechanics at least doubled from the improvement in tools. Another says: "It is well known that all labor saving machinery is the product of the brain of the educated laborer; but for forty years it has resulted in neither less hours for labor nor less physical labor to the laborer. The educated laborer of to-day works as hard and as many hours as the laborer forty years ago-the 'labor-saving' being money only to those who labor not."

All the replies admitted the value of education to any one with inventive faculties, though not conceding the whole credit to the fact of education alone.

As to educated persons being preferred for superintendents, foremen, &c., most of the replies concurred that they are, but assertions were made of cases to the contrary. Some employers select men of brute force to dominate over their laborers, but the emphatic bitterness with which these facts were stated would seem to show that they are excep tional.

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As to the effect of education and culture upon the position and influence of the laborer, the testimony was confirmatory of its value. One believed that the large proportion of criminals are children of ignorant parents; another pointed to the fact that but one in ten of the convicts of New York State is from the mechanic and laboring classes; another found great advance in the condition of the laborer through the spread of education, and looked to the reduction of the hours of labor to the lowest possible amount as the only hope for increased refinement of that class; another considered this reduction of the hours of labor "the great question of the day;" another would have every child compelled to go to school, till the age of sixteen years, a portion of each year at least; another admitted the great power of education in elevating the class of workmen in all respects, but said: "All is lost in the knowledge that a corrupt government legislates everything for capital and nothing for honest labor."

ANSWERS OF OBSERVERS.

From the observers these questions drew forth very different replies from those given by the actual employers and laborers, not in regard to any of the technical questions as to the general improvement produced by education, but in the reflections induced and by their deductions from the facts.

The question of the kind of education to be given was earnestly discussed, and the omissions which they charge to the common school and high school system were forcibly delineated. The absolute need of technical schools, of furnishing education closely related to the industries of all persons who must work, was strongly presented.

From the testimony thus given by various classes from all sections and among many industries, it is clear that the value of the common laborer to the community at large is positively increased and his power as a producer of adding to the common stock of wealth is materially enhanced by the education given him as a child in the common school. The increase of wages he will receive on account of his knowledge is put at various figures, averaging about 25 per cent. This increase of value arises from the facts (1) that the laborer is more readily instructed in his work; (2) that he needs less supervision; (3) that he does his work to better advantage, and therefore produces more in a given time; (4) that he is less liable to join in unreasonable and unseasonable strikes; (5) that he is more industrious; (6) that he is less dissipated; and, lastly, that he is less liable to become an expense to the commonwealth through poverty or crime.

That a knowledge of the sciences that underlie the occupation gives greatly increased value to its possessor as a laborer is agreed on all hands. It does this (1) by enabling him to avoid dangers-in mining, for instance to which ignorant men are exposed; (2) by enabling him to detect and remedy difficulties which else would cause expense or delay; (3) by enabling him to discover shorter and simpler methods of work,

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thereby increasing his powers of production; (4) by stimulating his qualities of contrivance, so that he adjusts and modifies the tools or machines which he uses, and becomes eventually an inventor of simpler and better machines, thus increasing the wealth producing power not only of himself, but of his fellow laborers; in this direction it is estimated that his value is increased 100 per cent., while in certain exceptional cases the gain is incalculable. But after admitting all these arguments in favor of the increased value of the laborer who possesses this higher education, it is clear, from the evidence of all, that the chief value and greatest advantage of such increased knowledge arise from the fact that it advances the well being of its possessor. By virtue of increased educa tion he commands higher wages for his services, and also adds largely to the common production.

Looking merely at its economic value, these answers go to prove that the community receives an ample return for whatever of money it invests in the education of its citizens. Since this is demonstrated, it adds force to the arguments now being urged for technical education and special training in the several industrial fields; for, if the teaching of the simple rudiments and general instruction give so rich a return to the state, how much greater and more certain results may be relied upon from special training for special labor. This question, which has been so fully tested by the technical schools of the European governments, is attracting attention here, and we are not surprised that dissatisfaction is openly expressed that the high schools furnish no opportunity for training in the practical industries of life.

The argument, as stated here, rests on an entirely different basis from that presented by the professional man, mortified that his country possesses no schools for professional training equal to those of Europe. This is the plea of the citizen who finds in the higher branches of the public schools an utter failure to give that training which fits for varied practical occupations. The point is well taken, and merits consideration. It is a plea for artisan, art, industrial, and scientific schools as a part of the common school system-a plea based upon the economic value to the state of such training of its citizens.

At this point, the remarks of Dr. Lyon Playfair before the British Social Science Association are opportune. This English savant advocated the training which shall best fit a man for his place in life. After referring to certain English schools and to ancient law requiring compulsory education for certain classes, he said:

This main idea of fitting a man for his work was vigorously supported by our old reformers. John Knox held firmly by it, especially in his scheme for secondary education, which, unfortunately for Scotland, was never adopted, though his plan for primary education was. In the former he announced that no boys should leave school till they had devoted a proper time to "that study which they intend chiefly to pursue for the profit of the commonwealth." This is the old conception of the object of education and reappears at the present day under the modern garb of "technical education." All the reformers urged its necessity, especially Luther and Melancthon. Most